5 things to know about Illinois’ new school rating system

Labels on the familiar state report card are poised to change.

Illinois plans to revamp how it rates public schools, meaning familiar labels on the state report card will change.

The Illinois State Board of Education in April approved a new school accountability system beginning in fall 2026.

The board says the overhaul will make school ratings clearer and fairer. The changes also remove some key measures and reshape how performance is judged.

Yet at a time when nearly half of Illinois students can’t read at grade level and even fewer are proficient in math, the board’s overhaul will change how schools are labeled but not how they perform.

Here are five things you should know about the changes while the plan awaits federal approval.

1. Schools will no longer be graded on a curve.

Illinois’ rating system ranks schools against each other. Only the top 10% can be in the top category and only the bottom 5% are ranked in the lowest.

The rankings are based on a school’s performance against other schools rather than strictly on how well its students meet specific criteria.

The new system will grade schools based on fixed standards. The goal is to eliminate moving goalposts, where a school’s rating could change based on comparison to other schools even if its performance doesn’t change. That could make ratings more consistent over time.

2. Fewer schools will be ranked in the mid-tier ‘commendable’ category.

The current system puts schools into four categories: exemplary, commendable, targeted and comprehensive. Schools labeled targeted or comprehensive require either district or state intervention under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

Currently, almost 75% of schools rank “commendable,” yet their scores vary widely in many of the performance metrics.

The new model uses five categories. It keeps “exemplary” and “comprehensive” at the top and bottom but splits the middle categories of “commendable” and “targeted support” into three: approaching exemplary, commendable and developing.

According to the state board, these new categories will more evenly distribute across the five tiers, with only 31% of K-8 schools and 25% of high schools ranking “commendable” using 2025 school data, compared with 73% of all schools in the current system.

While that could create clearer distinctions, it also means more schools might initially appear to fall in the rankings and others will appear to move up even if nothing has changed in the classroom.

Parents should know that changes in school rankings in the first year of the new system reflect that new system — not improving or worsening performance.

3. ‘Consistent attendance’ will replace chronic absenteeism.

The new system will replace “chronic absenteeism” with “consistent attendance.” Chronic absenteeism measures the percentage of students missing 10% or more of the school year, with or without a valid excuse. Consistent attendance measures the percentage who have been present 90% or more of the school year.

While the metrics are functionally identical, the reframing plays down chronic absenteeism, a problem in Illinois schools.

4. High attendance will improve a school’s ranking, but absenteeism will no longer hurt it.

The redesign also changes how student attendance from a “core indicator” to only an “elevating indicator.”

Under the new system, strong “consistent attendance” will raise a school’s rating, but a weak performance won’t lower it.

The state calls this a “strengths-based” approach, but what it actually means is that students skipping class won’t ding a school’s rating. This change comes as schools across Illinois struggle with high chronic absenteeism.

5. The accountability overhaul changes how schools are labeled, not how they are performing

The bottom line: This overhaul will change how schools are labeled but not how they perform. Many Illinois students are struggling in core subjects.

Just over half of Illinois public school students could read at grade level and 39% were proficient in math on 2025 state assessments, according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education.

These rates come after the board changed how proficiency is determined, lowering the reading and math scores considered proficient on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness.

Illinois should pursue rigor and transparency in public schools rather than lowering standards or softening accountability metrics.